The present invention relates to packages generally, and more particularly to packages assembled from plastic and non-plastic components.
Product packages can advantageously be manufactured from various materials. Molded transparent blisters can retain and position products for examination by the purchaser, while printed paper or cardstock elements can display images which attract the shopper's attention, distinguish and brand the product, and provide helpful or required information about the product's composition or use. Both these components can be fabricated at low cost, and are often disposed of after the product has been extracted or consumed.
The prudent customer can limit the waste stream to landfills by recycling a package which has served its use. In many municipalities recycling streams are maintained for both plastic and paper fiber materials. Yet materials are more effectively recovered when these two types of materials are not mixed. Hence a package which can be readily separated into distinct paper fiber and plastic components is a desirable enhancement to recycling material flows. There are many packaging structures that make this possible. For example, plastic clamshell containers which contain paperboard internal cards or which are ultrasonically sealed to external cards. Yet more options for package configuration and filling would be offered by a package employing adhesively adhered card elements with thermoformed thermoplastic blisters which are in no way adhered to the cards.